Planning to consider property zone change

Ridgecrest’s Planning Commission is set Tuesday to conduct a public hearing over changes to the city’s general plan and zoning ordinance to two pieces of property.

Comment

By Jack Barnwelljbarnwell@ridgecrestca.com

Ridgecrest Daily Independent - Ridgecrest, CA

By Jack Barnwelljbarnwell@ridgecrestca.com

Posted Feb. 23, 2013 at 12:30 PM
Updated Feb 23, 2013 at 12:51 PM

By Jack Barnwelljbarnwell@ridgecrestca.com

Posted Feb. 23, 2013 at 12:30 PM
Updated Feb 23, 2013 at 12:51 PM

Ridgecrest’s Planning Commission is set Tuesday to conduct a public hearing over changes to the city’s general plan and zoning ordinance to two pieces of property.

One property, located at 828 North Balsam St., at the behest of the applicant, is being recommended to be re-designated from its current unzoned designation to Residential, with the zoning ordinance marking it as multi-residential due to the number of buildings.

The other property, located at 822 North Balsam St., has been recommended by city staff to be rezoned general commercial in relation to both the zoning and general plans.

The public hearing arose when Sally Peterson, the applicant, requested her property at 828 North Balsam, be relabeled residential at the Jan. 22 planning commission meeting. Her request came due to the likely difficulty of selling it in the future because of its undesignated marker.

All five planning commissioners seemed surprised about the unzoned area, but had a general consensus that it should be zoned.

City Planner Matthew Alexander concurred with the assessment, citing the need for the spaces to be zoned.

According to the staff report for the zoning request, the second property is owned separately by Lola Taylor. City staff had contacted her about rezoning and she recommended light industrial for her building.

“In the opinion of the staff, this zoning would not be compatible with the residential properties to the north and west of her site,” the report states. “This is because of the noise that may be generated from industrial uses.”

In recommending the building be zoned commercial general, city staff argued the “CG zoning requires all activity to take place inside of a building.”

Alexander had proposed the public hearing as an alternative to Peterson undergoing an extensive and expensive process that would have cost her $5,200 for amending everything.

A public hearing, alternatively, would address the issue of rezoning both areas, save Peterson money and allow the public to weigh in on the anomaly in the city’s zoning map. Peterson would have to only front money for the newspaper notice and mail-out fliers.

Also on the agenda is a continued discussion on whether to move forward on possible amendments to the city’s animal keeping provisions under the zoning ordinance.

The commission became aware of the item when the city planner brought the residents wishing to keep animals in residential areas.

While the zoning ordinance is vague on the matter of keeping chickens inside single-family residential areas, Ridgecrest’s policy has always been to prohibit them.

Alexander presented the commission a pecking order of possible solutions, including approval by very specific criteria, permitting the city’s Animal Control department to approve and control the permitting process, let the matter rest solely in the planning commission’s purview of approval or denial, or simply exclude all but specific types of animals from the city’s single-family residential area.

Page 2 of 2 - Some felt that excluding chickens altogether would be a good solution, others, including members of the public, felt that citizens should be allowed the right to keep chickens and other animals if they followed proper protocol.

The commission will also discuss the city’s Military Substantiality Element of the General Plan.

The 23 -page section of the general plan, adopted in 2009, highlight’s the city’s relationship with and support of China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, as it is the closest urban area to the naval base.

It goes through details of development issues in relationship to the base, airspace concerns and basic producers that benefit both the Navy and the city.

The planning commission meets at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in City Hall’s council chambers.